Now this morning, let's turn
to Psalms 130. I call this the sinner's psalm. The sinner's psalm. And the first
thing we meet with in this psalm, in verse 1 and 2, is the sinner's
sincerity. Now the most fatal mistake that
a man can possibly make, spiritually, is to play at prayer, or to play
at worship. The psalmist says, out of the
depths. Now, some translate that as out
of the depths of need, and out of the depths of despair, and
out of the depths of desire I cry, and that may be correct, but
that's not the only interpretation. To me, the interpretation ought
to be out of the depths of my heart. I am deeply sincere. destroyed them. Turn to Ecclesiastes
chapter 5. God welcomes the sinner's presence,
God welcomes the sinner's prayer, God welcomes the sinner's plea,
but only when it's in sincerity. If I could impress upon you anything
this morning, that's what I would try to impress upon you. When
you come before the Lord, Don't come unless you can come in sincerity. Come with your guilt. Come with
your sins. Come with your infirmities. Come
with your failures. Come with your mistakes. But
come sincerely. Don't come hypocritically. It says in Ecclesiastes 5 verse
1, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more
ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they
consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God,
for God is in heaven and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy
words be few." It's serious business to come into the presence of
the Lord. It's serious business. Don't come with your customs
and come with your traditions and come with your prejudices,
come with your sins, but come in sincerity. Let the potsherds
of the earth strive, the scripture said, with the potsherds of the
earth, but let not a man strive with his maker." And the first
thing in Proverbs chapter 4 says this, Keep your heart, for out
of it are the issues of life. That's where this thing is decided,
in the heart. God looks not on the outward
countenance. God seeeth not as man seeeth.
God looks on the heart. So whoever you are this morning,
if you're a believer, if you're an unbeliever, if you're redeemed
by the blood of Christ and have confidence of your interest in
Him, or if you are doubtful about your position in Christ and doubtful
of your interest and fear that you are not in Christ, at least
come sincerely. Let's approach this thing with
sincerity. That's the first thing we meet
with in this center psalm, out of the dead. out of my heart,
out of my soul, out of thee, sincerity, I cried unto thee,
O Lord, Lord, hear my voice." Now, the second thing we meet
with. Now, let's just build this step by step. This is the sinner's
psalm. But first, we meet with the sinner's
sincerity. And if you're not going to meet
with us there, then get off right here. Don't go any further. Because
the rest of it is not applicable at all. But we've got to start
right here. Sincerity. Deep, personal sincerity as I
come before God. Then the second thing with which
we meet is verse 3, the sinner's confession. Now this is of second
importance. The first is sincerity. If I'm
coming before God, this thing has got to be out of my heart.
I'm not playing games. Let's play games together, but
not with Him. But be not hasty to utter anything
before the Lord. He's in heaven, and you are upon
the earth. And you go, you be worthy with men, and you make
promises and all of these things that maybe you don't intend to
fulfill. I hope you don't, but at least
don't make them to God. Be not hasty with thy mouth.
Yes, Lord, out of my heart, out of the depths of sincerity, I
cry to thee." Now, notice the sinner's confession. If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, if every transgression receives
the personal attention of God, if every transgression, if every
You know, Richard Baxter says, I preach as a dying man to dying
men. No man is fit to preach until
he realizes that. I identify with every sinner
in this town. I don't claim to be holy except
in Christ. I don't claim to be righteous
except in Christ. I don't claim to be without sin
except in Christ. I hope I can say with the Apostle
Paul, I am less than the least of all the saints. I hope that
I'm able to say, Lord, I am the chief of sinners. And that's
exactly, I'm not preaching down to you, I'm identifying with
you right here, and I'm saying every one of us stand before
God guilty. And if God should mark every
transgression, if every thought and every word and every act
of rebellion against God receives the personal attention of God,
and receive the just recompense and reward, if God shall see
and record and judge my every sin and your every sin, if every
word and deed and thought is brought to the judgment, who
shall stand?" Isn't that what he says? Oh, Lord, who shall
stand? God's jury can only find you
and me guilty as charged. I have no hope, I have no pleasing,
and neither do you. And we've got to come in there.
We've got to, first of all, approach Him with sincerity, and then
we've got to approach Him in contrition, with a completely
broken heart. As I search through my mind,
and my heart, and my will, and my past, and my present, as I
look at my record, I stand before God and I cry, guilty. I cannot
find one reason for mercy. I cannot find one reason for
grace to be given to me. Can you? If I justify myself,
Job said, my mouth would, my own mouth would condemn me. If
I begin to profess any righteousness or
merit at all, the very words that I say are lies before God,
and I know they're lies. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
or charge iniquity, who shall stand? And then the third thing
we meet with. is the sinner's expectation.
The sinner's expectation. Look at verse four. But there
is forgiveness with thee. I know that. And it's dishonoring
to God for me not to believe that. There is forgiveness. I'm not saying there's forgiveness
for me. That's presumption. But I'm saying
there's forgiveness for somebody because God is love and God is
mercy. Now this church I was in in Canada,
I love this pastor and I love these people. But the thing that
disturbed me a great deal, and I'm not being critical, I hope
I'm not, I have no right to be critical of anyone, but it bothers
me for people to keep talking about accepting Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior. That bothers me a whole lot.
And you may think that's being critical and being picky. But
that word personal is not used in the word of God in regard
to our Savior, my personal Savior. To me, that's presumption. To
me, that's pride. Christ is the Savior of sinners. He's the sinner's Savior. I come
to Him with no claims on Him. I can't claim Him as my personal
Savior. I can look to him as the Lord
of Lord and King of Kings, I can look to him as the gift of God,
I can look to him as the sinner's substitute, I can look to him
as the sinner's redeemer, and I can take my place in the dust
as a guilty, vile, helpless, hopeless sinner and cry that
he'll have mercy upon even me. But he doesn't owe me anything
but judgment and justice and hell, and that's right. And when this sinner comes to
write this psalm, he said, God, I crown thee out of my heart. I crown thee out of my heart.
This is a sincere plea. And Lord, I take my place before
you as a guilty sinner. Lord, if you should mark iniquity,
If you should judge for every transgression, Lord, I couldn't
stand, and neither could anyone else. Lord, who could possibly
stand? Who could possibly meet thy requirement? But I know this, Lord, there
is forgiveness with you. I know that. That's what the
angel said to the shepherds out there on that Judean hillside
that morning That night, when they announced the birth of Christ,
they said, We bring you good news. We bring you good news. God's going to show peace and
goodwill toward me. That's what Isaiah preached when
he said, Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be
as scarlet, God will make them as white as the snow. That's
what John the Baptist said when he pointed to Christ at the Jordan
River and said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. That's what John wrote when he
wrote his epistle to the church and said, If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. There is forgiveness within. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus ready, stands ready to
save you, full of pity, love, and power. There is forgiveness
with God. Let that be established. God
delights to show mercy. God is plenteous in mercy. There
is forgiveness. I go back through the Word of
God and I find men who have been forgiven. many, many, many, many, many
times. All right? That's three things. Now the
fourth thing I come to. And let's build this brick by
brick, step by step. The sinner's sincerity. Lord,
I'm sincere about this thing. I cry out of my heart. I confess
my sins. Now, he that hideth his sins
shall not prosper. You cover them and deny them. forget it. But whosoever confesseth
and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy. Lord, I confess,
and I know this, there's forgiveness with God. There's forgiveness
with God. And it's not honoring to his
name for me to doubt that at all. I know there's forgiveness
with God. All right, the fourth thing, the sinner's foundation. Look at verse I wait for the
Lord. I wait for the Lord. This isn't
a matter, this is not an issue settled by man. I don't wait
before the preacher to see if he can find forgiveness for me,
I wait before the Lord. I don't wait before the presbytery,
I don't wait before the priest, I don't wait before the council
of men, I wait, I wait for the Lord. That's what the leper said
when he came to Christ and fell on his face and worshiped the
Lord. He said, Lord, if you will, if you will, you can make me
whole. I wait for the Lord. My soul
does wait. Wait for what? What are we looking
for? We're looking for forgiveness. We're looking for mercy. We've
come with our guilt. We've come with our sin. We've
come with our iniquities, and we wait before the Lord. Now
watch this. And in his word, I'm waiting
for his word. His word. If they speak not according
to the law and the prophets, it's because there's no light
in them. I'm waiting for the word of God. Preacher, as I listen
to you this morning, don't tell me what you think, tell me what
God says. Don't tell me what the Baptist
church believes, tell me what God says. Don't tell me what
My parents or my grandparents or my great-grandparents held
and stood far. Don't tell me what the old Puritan
said. Tell me what God said. In His
Word do I hope. That's my only hope, in His Word. If you can find it in God's Word,
I'll build on it. If you can find it in God's Word,
I'll trust it. If you'll find it in God's Word
and read it to me out of His Word, I'll stake my eternal destiny
on it. I wait for the Lord. I'm not
doing business in the counsels of men. I want to do business
with Him. And I want to do business with
Him based on His Word. His Word cannot fail. That's
what Scripture says. My Word shall not return unto
me void. That's what God says. Heaven
and earth shall pass away, and they will, but not one jot or
one tittle shall pass from this word till it every bit is fulfilled."
If God says He'll send you to hell, He'll send you to hell.
If God says He'll wash your soul white in the blood of the Lamb,
He'll wash it white. If God says he'll make you like
Christ and take you to glory, he'll make you like Christ and
take you to glory. You can rest in his word. In
his word do I hope. In his word. In his word. I wait for the Lord. Now watch this fifth thing, verse
6. Now here's where many, many people
Many of us, I should say, many of us fail. We say we wait for the Lord and
we look to the Lord and we hope in the Lord, but it's a spasmodic
thing. That bothers me. An individual
comes by and shakes my hand and says, play for me, I'm a sinner. I expect to see that person the
next time the gospel is preached. I expect to see that person the
next time that prayer is walked to be made. I expect that person
to turn the message on on the radio and turn the message on
on the television when we preach. I expect that person to get some
tapes and listen to them. I expect that person to pursue
this thing until he finds it. But this thing of this spasmodic
conviction, I don't think it's of God. Now, if you have a physical
hunger, it stays there till you eat. Right? If you have a spiritual
hunger that's of God, it'll stay there till you're satisfied,
till you're filled. Now, listen to this verse 6.
We say, now, and I don't want to go back too much, but I want
this foundation got to be laid before I can make this point.
Now, watch it. I'm a guilty sinner. I have sins of the affections,
of the will, of the mind, of the heart, of the body, of the
hands, of the feet. I'm a guilt in my flesh. Well,
it's no good thing. God, I know it. I come before
thee in sincerity. I'm not playing games. I mean
this. I confess. And I know there's
forgiveness with you. I know there is. And I wait for
your word. I want to hear your word. In
your word do I hope. If I can hear from thee, like
those people in the days of Christ, thy sins be forgiven thee." Go
away with a smile, with a heart lifted, with a spring in your
step, with praise on your lips. God said, God said I'm forgiven. The preacher didn't sprinkle
some water on me and say I was forgiven. They didn't put me
beneath the pool and bring me up and say I was forgiven. God
said I was forgiven. And I wait on your word. But
now, watch this. My soul waited for the Lord more
than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they
that watch for the morning. That's how persistent I am. And
the picture we get here is this. A little boy, a little girl is
very, very sick. The fever is very, very high. A hundred and four, five or six. And the parents sit by the bed,
and the doctor, knowing the seriousness of the illness, stands beside
the bed with the parents, every once in a while checking the
pulse and the heartbeat. It's a long night. It's two o'clock
in the morning. And the sickness is always seemingly
worse at night, and the doctor says, If the morning dawns, I
believe the fever will break. If she makes it through the night,
I believe she'll be all right. And the parents walk the floor,
and the father looks at his watch, and then he looks at the clock.
The parents sit by the sickbed waiting for the light of morning.
All joy cometh in the morning. Will the night never be over. And Lord, that's how I wait for
Thee. Like those that watch for the
morning. You fellas in the service, did
you ever stand a 12 to 4 or a 4 to 8 watch? Oh boy, I know you did. Especially that 4 to 8. You're
so sleepy. You just wait for the dawn to
crack, for the sun to come up. It's a long night. You've been
standing there weary, tired, doing sentry duty, waiting for
the dawn of the morning. Oh, I'll be glad to see the morning. Lord, the sincere seeking sinner
waits on the word of forgiveness more than they that wait and
watch for the morning. That's how serious it is. And
I'll tell you, my heart beats with gladness when I run into
someone who is sincere about this matter and who seeks it
and who waits for it and looks to the word of God. I'm going
to continue to search his word till I find a word of forgiveness,
a word of mercy. I'm going to be persistent, I'm
going to persevere, I'm going to seek the Lord until he gives
me that word of forgiveness. Now look at verse 6, the sinner's
hope. Verse 7. Let Israel hope in the
Lord, for with the Lord there is justice. No, sir, that's not
what it says. I don't want justice, and neither
do you. It doesn't say with the Lord
there's justice. It says with the Lord there's
what? Mercy. That's what we want, mercy. Our hope is not in ourselves.
Our hope is in Christ. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. Our hope is not in the law. The
law can only condemn. In the mirror of the law, I see
the filth of my soul. Our hope is not in ceremony. It says, with the Lord. Look
at it, verse 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord.
Not in the church. not even in your own ability
to hold out. Let Israel hope in the Lord. With him there's mercy. That's
where mercy is, it's with the Lord. Now look at our text again, verse
7. With the Lord there is mercy,
and with him there's plenteous redemption. There are three things
with which I clothe. Now, I'm a guilty sinner. That's
established by the Word, by experience, by personal feeling. I'm identified
with sinners. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
dwell among a people of unclean lips. I come before God with
a sincere broken heart and a broken and a contrite spirit, and I
confess my sin. And I know with Him there's forgiveness. David found forgiveness. Saul
of Tarsus found forgiveness, Simon Peter found forgiveness,
the thief on the cross found forgiveness. There is forgiveness.
And my hope is in his word, in his word. And his word says,
with the Lord there is mercy. With him. It's not with the Church,
it's not with man, it's with the Lord. With the Lord there is mercy,
and the word and here ought to be because. With the Lord there is mercy,
because with the Lord there is redemption. Now here's the good
news, stay with me just a few moments. With the Lord there
is mercy, because with the Lord there is redemption. Now my friends,
mercy looks to redemption. Mercy looks to redemption. God
cannot show mercy unless there is a fit and acceptable price
paid. Now, the Lord of glory is merciful,
but the Lord of glory is holy. This is what, right this particular
point I'm on now, is where this present generation of churches
and preachers are missing it. They think all God has to do
in order to put away your sins is to persuade you to believe
on him. All God has to do to just blot
out your transgressions is to persuade you to accept him. Well
now, God is merciful, but now you wait a minute. God is holy.
God is merciful, but God is righteous. Job sought the answer to this.
Turn with me to Job 25. Now, this is important, and Job
asked this question two or three times through his writings. In
Job 9 and Job 25. Read the one in Job 25. Listen
to this. Verse 4, Job 25. How? How? You say you know. How, then,
can man be justified with God? Huh? These great, brilliant, God-inspired
holy men of old didn't have all the answers. How, Job said, can
a man be justified, be pronounced holy, be considered not guilty
with God? Oh, I can understand how you
can say, I'm better than Job Brown, or I'm better than I'm
better than somebody else, but how can you be justified with
God?" Listen, how can he be clean that's born of a woman? Behold
the moon, it shineth not, the stars are not pure in God's sight. How much less man that is a worm,
and the Son of Man which is a worm. God cannot justify you unless
God can be just in justifying you. God cannot show mercy to
you unless God can be holy in showing that mercy to you. God
cannot be gracious to you unless at the
same time He can honor His holy law, and unless He can satisfy
His divine justice. The mercy of God stands out here. You and I are in the prison house
of the damned. The law has shut us up and made
us captives and put us in bondage. We're guilty, just like the criminal
in prison. is guilty, and the law shuts
him up in prison. He robs a bank, or he murders
someone, and the law comes over here and grabs him and says,
you've broken the law, you're guilty. And the law shuts him
up in prison and closes the door and says, you'll stay there till
you die. And Mama comes and says, let
my boy out, I love him. The law says, I love him too,
but he's guilty. The brother comes and says, let
my brother free, I love him. The judge says, I love him too,
I feel sorry for him. But the law's got him now. I
can't set him free and be just, and be holy, and be righteous.
He's got to stay there. And the mercy of God stands outside
the prison house of the dam, and the mercy of God says, with
God there's mercy. And in here the law says, with
God there's justice. And the love of God stands out
and says, with God there's love. God loves sinners. And the justice
and holiness of God stands within as he holds the prisoner. Says,
this man's guilty, and with God there's righteousness and holiness
and mercy. You can't have them. Well, I'm
satisfied. There's a law to be satisfied.
That's the reason Job's asking this question. How can the prisoner
be set free and God still be just? You got that answer? You
don't have the answer that you don't know the gospel. Mercy
waits on redemption. But now, thank God, redemption
looks to Christ. Listen to it. Let Israel hope
in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, because with
him there is plenty of redemption." I've found a ransom. I've found
a ransom. Abraham brought Isaac to the
top of Mount Moriah. He put Isaac on that altar. He
bound him with the vines, or with the rope. He took his knife. He poised it above the breast
of his son. And God said, Abraham, touch
not the lamb. I know you love me. And Abraham
turned and looked behind him, and there was a ram caught in
the thicket. Abraham reached over and got
the ram and tied it, untied his son, lifted his son off the altar
and put him down, picked up the ram, put it on the altar, tied
him, and shed his blood in the place of his son. As it goes
free, the Lamb dies. I'm in the prison house of the
damned. I'm guilty, guilty, guilty, and so are you. And Jesus Christ
comes and says, Mercy? I'll satisfy you. Law? I'll satisfy you. I'll go in
and take the prisoner's place. I'll go to the gallows for him.
I'll go to the electric chair for him. I'll go to the prison
house of loneliness for him. I'll suffer and bleed and die
in his place. The center of the Lord Jesus
comes down here and takes our place under the law, under the
judgment and justice of God, and dies. And mercy walks through
the open door, opened by Christ. He opens for us into the presence
of God, a new and living way. And mercy walks through the door
and takes not a prisoner any longer because the debt's been
paid. He takes the captive free. Mercy looks to redemption. Mercy
stands here and says, Is there not a Redeemer? And redemption looks to Christ,
and Christ comes down here and satisfies it. I've found a ransom. Now look at the third thing in
closing. Mercy looks to redemption. Redemption looks to Christ. And
the sinner looks to Christ and finds in him how much? Plenty of redemption. Plenty
of redemption. Now, if you've got a man in jail
for stealing a car, it's a lot easier to get him out than it
is to get that murderer out. You follow me? But with the Lord
Jesus Christ, we're all murderers. We're all maximum security risk. We're all guilty. There's not
an elevation of guilt. There's not a catalog of sins.
To offend in one point of the law is to be guilty of the whole law. Now, you get this
out of your mind, or you don't know the gospel, you don't know
Christ, and you don't know sin. There's not bad sinners here
this morning and good sinners. There's just sinners. There's
not double-dyed sinners and just slightly tainted sinners. That's
what some of you think, but you're dead wrong. All flesh is grass,
and all the glory of man is the grass of the field. It withereth
and decayeth. And with God Almighty in His
sight, you who think you're just slightly tainted with sin are
just as double-dyed and scarlet in sin as the worst character
that ever walked on this earth in God's sight. Now that's so,
that's what the Word of God declares. All have sinned and come short
of God's glory. All we like sheep have gone astray.
The Bible knows nothing of this pretty bad sinner and pretty
good sinner and not-so-bad sinner and a little better sinner and
an awful sinner! Oh, he's so awful, she's so awful
before God, you're so awful, you're worse than they are. With Christ there's plenty of
redemption. He can save the chief of sinners. Do you know what it says? Though
your sins be as scarlet, I'll make them white as snow. Though
they be red like crimson. There was an old lady who lived
in the country over in England many years ago. She was never
out of her village. All of her life she skimped and
saved and scraped and tried to make a living, never had enough
to wear and never had enough to eat and never had enough fuel
to burn and all, it was that way all her life. And her son
got a little money somehow and he came home and got his mom
and wanted to take her to the seashore. And he put her in the
carriage, and they rode to the seashore. She'd never been to
the seashore. And she came to the seashore,
and there, stretching out in front of her, was that vast expanse
of water. And that old woman stood there,
and her eyes got as big as saucers, and her son waited for her first
word. And you know what it was? Oh,
she said, I'm glad to see something of which there's plenty of. plenty
of it. And I tell you, when you look
to Christ, when you look to him for redemption, there's plenty
of it, plenty of it, inexhaustible supply. It can reach to the depths
of sin. It can reach to the farthest
reaches of rebellion. It can reach to the very it can
reach to the very blackest cesspool of the deepest hell on this earth,
and it can save the chief of sinners, there's plenty of it,
because of who provided it. And it's plenteous because not
only who provided it, but what he provided. He gave his life
a ransom. By his stripes we're healed. The blood of Christ cleanseth
us from all sin. He is able to save to the uttermost,
to the uttermost, all who come to God by him. It's plenteous
because of its power. That's the reason when our Lord
saved sinners through the New Testament, here he saved the
chief of sinners. Is there Mary here this morning
filled with seven evil spirits? Is there Zacchaeus here today
who spent his life cheating and stealing, plotting to get money? Is there a thief here this morning
with murder and plundering? Is there Saul of Tarsus filled
with religious pride? Is there a double-dyed sinner
here this morning who cannot even raise his eyes toward heaven,
I say to you, come to Christ. With him there is plenteous redemption,
plenty of it. Oh, but you say, my sins are
infinite. So is his atonement. You say,
but my sins are so great, they're higher than the highest mountain.
So is his atonement. But you say, my troubles are
insurmountable, they're unspeakable, so is his atonement. But you
say, I don't know if I can hold out. Let me tell you, before
you try, you can't do it. But Christ can. Christ can keep
you till the river rolls its waters at your feet. You don't
depend upon yourself for the cleansing when you don't depend
upon yourself for the keeping. You depend upon him for the mercy,
depend upon him for the strength. You look to him for the cleansing,
you look to him for the mercy, then look to him, look to him
for continued mercy. You keep on forgiving. Keep on forgiving. keep on coming
to Christ, and you'll keep on forgiving. With the Lord, there's
plenty of redemption. Plenty of it. Our Father in heaven, let us be sincere Grant us by
the Holy Spirit a sincere and broken heart. Let us see our
guilt. Let us cease from observing the
guilt of others and taking the place of the proud Pharisee who
said, I thank you Lord, I'm not like other men. Take away out
of our hearts the critical spirit. Let us see guilt as you see it,
before God, against God. And let us see that there is
forgiveness, and that forgiveness and that redemption and that
mercy is in Christ. With him there's plenty of redemption. And Lord grant us a genuine heart
of confession, contrition, and repentance. Give us a hunger
and thirst for righteousness. Point us to Christ. Give us a
will to seek the Lord, and seeking him to find him, and finding
him to love him, and loving him to cling to him. In his name
we pray. Amen.